When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. OurPrivacy Noticeexplains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Heidi Allen MP has expressed her support for stronger links between Cambridgeshire foodbanks and local advisers at the Department at Work and Pensions (DWP).

The South Cambridgeshire MP discussed the idea at a meeting with volunteers at the Cambourne Distribution Centre of the Cambridge City foodbank today (January 5).

Ms Allen, who also sits on the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, agreed to help the foodbank build links with regional job centre officials.

It is hoped that Cambridgeshire could act as a pilot area for DWP advisers giving specialist advice to foodbank clients where appropriate.

MP Heidi Allen during her visit to the Cambourne Distribution Centre of the Cambridge City Foodbank. (Image: Keith Jones)

The Trussell Trust-run foodbank in Cambridge works on a hub and spoke model, with distribution centres covering the city, Cambourne and Waterbeach.

In the past year the foodbank handed out food parcels to 4,900 people - an annual increase of 13 per cent.

The Trussell Trust runs a network of over 400 foodbanks providing emergency food parcels to people in crisis. In 2015-16 it gave out 1,109,309 three-day emergency food supplies.

In December, the anti-poverty charity called for a direct telephone line between foodbanks and local job centres.

The Trust fears that its network of foodbanks could be on course to distribute the highest number of food parcels in its 12-year history during 2016-17.

It said that benefit delays and changes are the biggest reasons for foodbank use and that links to local job centres will enable volunteers to help those in crisis quickly and effectively.

The Cambridge City Foodbank handed out food parcels to 4,900 people in the past year. (Image: Keith Jones)

Jonathan Edney, the Director of Cambridge City foodbank who attended the meeting with Ms Allen, said: "We very often have people coming to the foodbank because their benefits have changed and they've got stuck in the system.

"The idea would be to have a hotline that one of the volunteer staff call up.

"It needs to be done in the right way. It requires a certain level of training. We need to set it up in a controlled way.

Visitors to Trussell Trust foodbanks are required to obtain food vouchers through a local referee, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Read More

Related Articles

Mr Edney added: "Part of the model is that people have a voucher to come to the foodbank. By the time we see people they already should have another organisation to help them.

"[A hotline] would enable us to give a bit of extra help."

"A woman I spoke to before Christmas, her husband had his job terminated quite unexpectedly but the benefits money hadn't come through.

"In a situation like that, they've got no money, no food and two children... if we were able to use a hotline we could ask what's going on and find out where the money is stuck.

"Our job is to help people in crisis."

In December David McAuley, Chief Executive of The Trussell Trust, said: "To stop UK hunger we must make sure the welfare system works fairly and compassionately, stopping people getting to a point where they have no money to eat.

"It feels like we could be seeing a new era at the DWP with a consultation on Work Capability Assessments and willingness to engage in dialogue with charities working on the front line.

"A telephone hotline could build on this and go a long way to improving foodbanks' ability to help get people out of a crisis faster."